I'll think of something
by Mokulule
Summary: ”I’m scared... Help me!”... She was gone. Temari turns up in Shikamarus dream, screaming for him to help her. Now Shikamaru sets out to find out wether it was just a dream or if something bad really happened to Temari. Shikatem Temshika Shikatema
1. Disturbing ones dreams

_Author's note:_ Hello this is my first story. I hope people like it. I'd appreciate it if people told me if I make any spelling mistakes, English isn't my native language, but I'm doing my best.

_Disclaimer:_ Since I've just read the rules here, I know you're not supposed to put up your very own fictional stories here, which means the characters and the universe ain't my property. Then I'm supposed to go to this other site, whose name I've seemed to forgotten ;)

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**1. Dis****turbing one's dreams**

Temari was floating. Yes, that is the correct verb. Mind you it wasn't on her fan. For some reason the thought of her fan sent pang of sorrow through her heart. Fog was all around her. She was confused and maybe scared, but Temari would never admit that. She felt nothing right now. She didn't feel connected. She felt light, weightless. This fog was choking her, strangling her. She needed to get away, but she couldn't move. She felt dazed. Perhaps she should just give in. Give in to the strange fog and be at peace. No! She was Sabaku no Temari a stubborn konouchi, that never gave in, not to anyone, no, and definitely not to some foggy haze.

Temari would have smirked, she just called a fog some foggy haze like it was an insult. The fog probably thought it nice to be foggy, it was after all fog. Shaking her lightheadedness away she remembered; she was supposed to find a way out. Dazed she looked around. The stupid fog was getting to her head again. There! She found something. A thin, make that very thin, golden tread shone faintly in the mist. Having somewhat of a purpose cleared her misty mind. She wanted to follow the tread, curious to where it would lead her. She wanted to take a step, but found that she wasn't moving. Not understanding she looked intently on the tread wondering why she couldn't move her body to follow it. Suddenly she realized she had been floating along the thread, but loosing focus she stopped abruptly. Thinking she got the trick, she willed herself along the thread. She would have jumped in joy had it not been for the fact she had no clue, where she was.

Suddenly she was out of the fog. The great black sky dotted with stars wrapped around her. She felt herself stop. A chilling wind blew suddenly and threatened to take her away. Fear shrouded her mind as the thread moved away from her. Frantically her mind reached forward grabbing the thread in a panicky hold. Strangely though, the tread didn't break. Even though it looked so fragile it didn't break. She reeled the rest of herself in, willing herself forward yet again.

The city beneath her seemed somewhat familiar. Startled she realized she was looking down upon Konoha. Even though she was startled, this time she didn't lose her mental grip. Floating down towards a house quickly, like if she was falling. She went right through the roof! Not crashed through or anything, just simply slipped through solid roof!

She found herself in a bedroom. Sprawled on the bed, his covers all messed up (like when small kids sleep) lay a young man she knew all too well. Nara Shikamaru. The recently promoted Jounin had his thick black hair out of his usual spiky ponytail, leaving it to cover most of his face. She was wondering why the thread let her to him. Why did the thread lead her to this lazy genius of all people? Her eyes followed the thread to where it disappeared into Shikamaru left side of the chest. His very muscular chest. From there on she suddenly realized that the crybaby had become quite muscular over the years. She hadn't ever seen him undressed like this before only wearing boxers admittedly, so she couldn't really be sure about him not always being like this, could she? Nah, she decided to herself the muscles were definitely new, he'd always been rather scrawny.

Due to her contemplating she hadn't realized, the increased shadow activity. Like any normal person would realize something like that in a dark room, right? Suddenly they were just swept around her. Strangely enough she didn't feel scared in the least. Somehow she actually felt safe.

Next thing she knew she found herself in a completely dark room standing in front of a strikingly blue lake. Wondering for a moment how she could tell the blue color in complete darkness, but dismissing it soon. Too many things hadn't made sense to her recently. She found herself looking at the lake. The surface was completely calm no stirrings, nothing. A smile crept onto her face. If this was indeed Shikamaru's mind, which she suspected, she knew something that would stir those waters.

She was thrilled. This was going to be fun. She moved her feet a bit from each other gaining more balance. For some reason she had a body to connect with in here.

" Nara Shikamaru, get off your lazy ass and greet me!" She screamed loudly.

The water of the lake stirred for a moment only to calm down a second after. A wind blew across to meet her sounding almost like a sigh. She was about to yell for him again when she noticed something approaching her from the surrounding shadows.

"How come, troublesome women, that you always seem to disturb my dreams?", Shikamaru said emerging from the shadows in his usual attire.

"I've never...", she began but suddenly stopped. She felt something pulling at her right behind her navel. Panic grabbed a hold on her mind.

"Shikamaru! I don't know what's happening to me! Something's wrong, I swear," Temari doubled over in pain. Shikamaru started running towards the konouchi. She looked up meeting his worried eyes, "I'm scared... Help me!", she finished the last in a screech. She was gone.

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Shikamaru sat up in his bed with a start. He was shaking and sweating. Touching his burning forehead with his hand, he mumbled, "this is bad, not only troublesome, but bad... very bad indeed."

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Please review, I'd be happy to know what people think.


	2. Taking a break

_Author's note:_ Okay, finally done. I'm so sorry for not keeping my goal, I wanted to update once a week, that dream was shattered by my exam project, which demanded lots of attention. Now I feel great! I wish to thank those people who reviewed. Especially BlackJack7, who pointed out some confusing elements and even gave me some advice. Thank you very much! These things have been corrected, and I caught some minor spelling mistakes along the way. This means that the first chapter has been edited a bit.

On to the new chapter, I hope you enjoy reading it.

I've read it through a couple of times but I won't promise complete correctness. If something's completely wrong tell me and I'll correct it.

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Naruto, but the plot is all mine. Mwuhahaha!

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**2. Taking a break**

Tsunade sat back in her chair dumbfounded. One of her most prominent shinobi just asked her, if he was allowed to take a break from missions. He wanted to travel for an unknown period of time. Something was definitely wrong. Surely to most people it would seem Shikamaru was acting just like normal. To the untrained eye he seemed like the lazy ninja he'd always been, slouching slightly, hands in his pockets and of course the bored, indifferent look that rarely left his face. To Tsunade though, his occasional yawns of boredom held an edge of tiredness. His hands had been shaking slightly the moment he entered, that is, until he stuffed them in his pockets. His eyes were slightly more open than usual, like if he was forcing them to stay open. Quite frankly, to her, he looked like someone that hadn't slept all night. That would be weird. Shikamaru was that kind of laid back person that never missed out on sleep, this being one of his favorite pastimes, second only to cloud gazing.

"Why?" Tsunade said, finally voicing the question that had plagued her for the last ten minutes of utter silence.

"Sorry, I can't tell you that, too troublesome," Shikamaru drawled not looking at her.

"Too troublesome to tell me, or too troublesome to make me understand? No, wait I don't want to know," She added eye twitching. Knowing already the answer would be plain both. She knew all too well, why Shikamaru was asking her to have a break from missions, instead of just leaving or retiring or something like it. She wasn't in the best of moods right now though, so she decided to have him lay it out for her. "Why didn't you just leave the village or tell me you're retiring or something, I wouldn't really be able to do anything about that?"

Shikamaru raised a brow at that, making it obvious to Tsunade that he knew she knew. Apparently deciding it wasn't too _troublesome_ to tell, he began.

"Let's begin with the fact, that if I ran away, I would be a missing nin, which I'd rather not, pretty obvious that one. If I retired it would be necessary to be reinstalled as a ninja, when I return, which could involve another exam, and I've always found exams way too troublesome."

"So, how long will you be gone?"

"I told you already, I don't know. It can be anything from six days till a year..."

"You're heading to Suna then?"

Any other person would have looked up in surprise at that, but we're talking about Shikamaru here and he knew she'd notice even before he told her the six days thingy.

"Yeah at first, which is another reason to still wear my Konoha hitai ate," He continued even before she could add an obnoxious "why", she wasn't really in that good a mood today, "since they know me as a _ninja_ of Konoha , it would cause unnecessary explanations if I wasn't wearing it."

"When?"

"Today, as soon as I'm done talking to you."

"You've already packed?" She asked dumbstruck. Something was definitely wrong. But she hadn't got a clue of what it could be. That said she couldn't help him either, if he chose to keep it secret, so be it. With that intelligence of his he should be able to take care of himself. It irritated her greatly though to let him go like that. He was an important asset to Konoha and after some prompting from this sand konouchi, Temari, that's her name, and then Asumas death, he'd begun to use some of the great potential. Asumas death was terrible, but at least it caused some good.

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Shikamaru had decided that morning that something had to be done. After hours of failed attempts at sleep, something definitely had to be done. He had this feeling in his gut that something troublesome had happened and he wasn't one to dismiss that feeling as irrelevant. Ninjas knew to trust their instincts, and no one was better deciding if something troublesome was up than Shikamaru. You could say, he had a knack for it. Anyhow that night Shikamaru's stomach had decided to curl up, he'd been shaking, sweating and it had felt like something was clenching his heart. All because of a stupid dream turned nightmare -either that or he'd had a heart attack, which was very unlikely considering his age and physical form. He had considered it though, around sunrise, when he'd taken his thinking stance to figure out what happened, and most importantly what to do.

Normally he'd have dismissed it for what it was, a nightmare. Conjured by his fears of losing friends – like he lost Asuma. The thing is though, for some reason he just couldn't. The image of Temari doubled over in pain just wouldn't leave him. _Shikamaru!_ Her eyes, greenish-blue, shrouded in pain and fear. _I'm scared..._ Her voice screaming, begging for his help. _Help me!_

At that point he had looked down upon his hands, separated them from the favored position and watched them as they shook violently. The time for thinking was over; he would have plenty of time to do just that on his three-day trip to Suna. This is the reason the shadow user ended in Tsunade's office. The reason why his teammates would find a letter apologizing for leaving without saying goodbye, promising he'd be back soon enough. The reason why lazy Nara Shikamaru was passing through Konoha's gate that afternoon. The day following the night of a nightmare.

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I had planned to put more of the actual plot into this chapter, but the story seems to have a life of it's own.

Review please!

Just tell me to continue or something, if you're busy. It helps me get into the mood. Truly I might not have gotten to write the last half of this chapter, if I wasn't told to by BlackJack7 and TotalDissaray. I wrote the beginning right after getting my first review from Strife The Cloud. This means review if you want to know what happens.


	3. Demanding to know

Author's note: I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm not very good at updating. Hopefully It'll get better once my exams are over, which by the way have been going rather well as of yet. This is for my reviewers since it's one in the morning and I just couldn't stand disappointing them anymore. So without further ado here's the chapter.

Disclaimer: Me don't own Naruto

**3. Demanding to know**

With the way ninjas travel the trip to Suna takes three days, with the way Shikamaru travels he'd figured three and a half. It took him two.

Initially Shikamaru had had some doubts about this whole situation, which had slowed down his pace. It had probably just been a nightmare. He was supposed to be smart, really smart, a genius in fact. Since when did geniuses freak out due to a fragment of imagination? Okay, he had freaked out before because of dreams aka fragments of imagination. That was a completely different matter though. Actually something best kept a secret as well. Waaah! He wasn't supposed to think of _those_ dreams. Bad thoughts!

It had felt so _real_. Essentially _that_ was probably the problem. Another questionable thing about the whole nightmare theory was the fact that _that_ just wasn't the way Temari would be imagined. Then again the out of character action could suggest that it was just a dream. But bossy overbearing loudmouth hard-hitting fan wielding Temari wouldn't be portrayed as weak, right? Shikamaru did understand his own mind and that wouldn't happen. In _those _dreams though, she was portrayed rather out of character. At that point Shikamaru would think,"That still hasn't got _anything_ to do with it."

Even if the 'dream' held some truth, why was he even bothering? He Shikamaru the laziest, most cowardly ninja in Konohagakure, the village hidden in the leaves. Keywords here 'Shikamaru lazy' and Konohagakure. Really it wasn't his problem if a ninja from another village had trouble, even though Suna and Konoha were allied. If something happened it was probably mission related, and he really had no right probing in such matters. Then again something probably didn't happen.

That night the lazy jounin couldn't sleep. That voice of hers was haunting his mind in a way it couldn't when he was moving. He tossed and turned but couldn't find anywhere comfortable. Somebody once claimed that Shikamaru could sleep anywhere, anytime and in any given position. The guy was wrong. He had been right until this point, but now he had been proved wrong. Why? Why did she haunt him like that? What had he ever done to deserve that?

Staring through the leaves at the soon fading stars he couldn't help but think of the possibilities. The possibilities of how Temari could contact him if it really wasn't a dream. He was fairly certain she didn't know any sort of communication jutsu. The only other option that came to his mind was her soul paying a visit. But what would Temari's soul be doing outside her body? She couldn't have… No, Temari couldn't, just couldn't be…

The first rays of the sun suddenly shone through the overhanging leaves, startling Shikamaru out of his reverie. He quickly got his stuff together and left, repeating a mantra in his head. _She couldn't, she couldn't_

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Having traveled through the second night of his journey (instead of tossing and thinking thoughts that wouldn't calm him anyway) he arrived in the late afternoon two days after his departure. He showed his pass to the guards at the gate and made his way towards the Kazekage's office after some quick directions.

One thing was certain; he didn't like the dessert. Way too much burning hot sand that intruded into his sandals and that sun, there wasn't any shade giving tree anywhere. If he had been on a mission with someone surely he would have complained like no tomorrow, but he really hadn't noticed consciously. His mind was elsewhere, trapped in a nightmare. Unconsciously he had given a great sigh upon entering Suna. His quest was soon to be over. His life could go back to way it was before. Besides it was nice to walk down a busy street filled with noisy people, almost like home.

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Shikamaru took a deep breath, steadying himself, plastering on the mask of his usual boredness, before gently knocking on the Kazekage's door. Dealing with Gaara wasn't something Shikamaru was looking forward to. He knew Gaara had changed from that bloodthirsty bastard as Naruto would probably put it, but he didn't really know him that well. Regardless, Gaara was still freaking scary.

"Come in" was heard slightly muffled through the door.

Taking another deep breath, Shikamaru entered the lion's den. The 'lion' looked up from the stacks of paperwork with mild (very mild) surprise on his face, he seemed to be wondering who the Konoha shinobi was for a moment but then said, "Nara Shikamaru, what a surprise, what brings you here?"

Shikamaru stepped up to the desk and bowed quickly to show his respects, then promptly handed the Kazekage some scrolls telling him they were from Tsunade. He was grateful to Tsunade for the excuse, but he'd never tell her of course. It wouldn't fit his character. Careful to sound casual he continued:

"So… Is Temari around?"

"No, she's on a mission," Gaara replied without looking up from the papers. If he had he would have seen a shocking sight as Shikamaru dropped the mask.

"Where?" Shikamaru couldn't believe she wasn't there. She was supposed to and then he could sleep again. She couldn't… _No_, she couldn't.

Gaara was starting to get annoyed. Because of that he failed to see the distress on the young man's face, when he looked up.

"Look it really isn't your business," _Shikamaru! _Those eyes, that voice he couldn't get them out of his head, "Konoha and Suna might be allies," _Something's wrong, I swear_ Shikamaru couldn't listen to Gaara, his mind was elsewhere, "but they have absolutely no demand to know which missions Suna shinobi take on," _I'm scared_ his heart was beating frantically and his eyes widened, "and where they're situated for that matter," _Help me!_ Those pain stricken eyes looked at him, "we're competing villages, even though we hold strong ties to each other…"

Shikamaru slammed both his hands upon the Kazekage's desk, "I demand to know where Temari is!"

Upon the loud bang, Shikamaru snapped back to reality and what he had just done. His eyes widened even more if possible, but this time in shock. Gaara's eyes widened in shock as well, until those nonexistent brows of his furrowed into a scowl. Nobody, I repeat nobody had ever dared do something like that.

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Author's note: You'll review if you like. By the way I'm it seems like I have people following the story. And to BlackJack7 I'm sorry if I worried you, I'm not stopping this because I don't get much reviews or anything, I promise. I planned too much of the story to do that. I've been counting possible chapters as of yet, which can be seen on my profile page. You'll see what I mean.


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